The Dragon
by MusicalWind
Summary: Four ponies go on a mission for friendship to save Celestia, Luna, and the Elements of Harmony. Takes place soon after the wedding.
1. Chapter 1

The train pulled into Ponyville station and ground to a stop. I put on my saddlebags and climbed off down the ramp.

The station was pretty much empty. One clump of ponies was getting off out of another car, but otherwise there was only the train conductor.

I checked a map hanging on one wall and was starting to head off down Stirrup Street when something wild and pink popped up in front of me.

"Oh my gosh! A new pony! What's your name?" the pony chirped. She beamed so widely and infectiously that I couldn't help smiling as well.

"Lovely Dove," I said.

"I'm Pinkie Pie! Where are you from-WAIT! I should throw you a party! Everyone new to Ponyville gets a party! Come to Sugarcube Corner-"

She never finished, because one of her friends suddenly wrapped an arm around her and dragged her off, shouting, "Sorry! Gotta go!"

I shook my head, still smiling, and headed off.

My landlord's name was Davenport-we'd corresponded in the mail-and he ran the Quill and Sofa shop. It seemed like an odd combination, but he had an apartment on the second floor, and at least I'd have easy access to cheap quills.

I finally found the shop and Davenport showed me to my rooms in the back. He showed me the back door, so I wouldn't have to walk through the shop all the time, and gave me the key. I thanked him and went in to unpack.

The rooms were small, neat, and simple. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, and a tiny bedroom. I put a picture of my mother and brother on the desk, my books and papers on the shelves, and my toothbrush and hairbrush in the bathroom.

I was starving, but hadn't brought any food with me on the train, so I decided to go look for a restaurant. I'd just gotten out onto the street when Pinkie Pie appeared in front of me.

"There you are!" she said. "I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find you! Come on, your party is about to start!" She bounced off, chattering. After a second's hesitation I went ahead and followed.

When we reached Sugarcube Corner, which turned out to be a bakery, the party was already in swing. I couldn't begin to count the number of ponies milling about. There were desserts, music, and confetti everywhere. Pinkie Pie got me a cupcake (which was very good) and I followed her around as she introduced me to ponies.

"Here's Applejack, and Lyra, and Bon-bon," she said. "This is Lovely Dove!"

"Nice to meet you," said Applejack, who had icing on her face.

"You too," I said, but then Pinkie Pie whisked me off to meet somepony else.

Finally I was able to get away from everypony and stand off to the side, watching, the way I was usually most comfortable at a party. I kept a smile pasted on my face so that nobody would try to get me to talk, hopefully, but also because I was happy. Everypony looked so cheerful and satisfied, and I was happy watching them.

After a few minutes I noticed another pony standing shyly nearby, next to the punch table. She was green with a yellow mane, and she looked kind of sad despite her smile. She noticed me looking at her and nodded. Pinkie Pie had introduced me to her, I was sure, but I couldn't think of her name.

"Hi," I said.

"You're the Lovely Dove, right?" the pony said. Her expression was slightly sour but she sounded friendly enough. I nodded. "I'm Jewel," she added helpfully.

"Nice to… actually meet you," I said. Jewel rolled her eyes.

"I know. Pinkie's crazy with these parties."

I shrugged. "She's just trying to be friendly. She seems nice."

"Well, sure, she's perfectly nice. She just doesn't know when to stop."

Somepony came over to get punch, and Jewel and I moved out of the way.

"What did you come here for?" Jewel asked conversationally.

"Well, change of scenery, mostly," I said. I didn't mention getting evicted from my apartment in Fillydelphia.

"Your family kicked you out," Jewel guessed.

"No, no," I said. "Just a landlord."

Jewel nodded. "So are you a student or an artist?"

"An artist," I said. "I'm a writer."

"But you can't sell anything."

I shook my head.

"I'm in the same boat. There's not a big market for paintings around here," Jewel said.

I shrugged. "But anyway… What kind of painting do you do?" I asked, to get the conversation off of me.

Jewel shook her head. "Whatever inspires me. I'm a realist-I like to paint things how they are."

Suddenly Pinkie Pie called everyone to the tables to eat. I hadn't realized there was even an actual dinner being served. I'd been snacking continuously the whole time and was already full.

Seeing Jewel and I together, Pinkie Pie spuriously moved seats around so we could eat together. The tables each sat four or five; I was with Jewel, Pinkie Pie, and two other ponies I recognized but couldn't put names to. One was purple and the other yellow. As Pinkie Pie ran off again to get lemonade, the purple pony turned to me and smiled.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, the librarian," she said. "This is Fluttershy."

Fluttershy smiled and ducked her head with excessive shyness.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "I'll probably see you soon. I actually meant to go to the library today."

"Really? That's great!" Twilight Sparkle said, her face lighting up.

Dinner was served, and after, although the music kept playing, ponies started to drift away. Pinkie Pie wouldn't let me stay to clean up, so Jewel and I left together a few minutes later.

"Ugh. I was supposed to go grocery shopping," I muttered as we headed down the street. It was dark and all of the market stalls were empty.

"Best stuff is in the morning anyway," Jewel said.

"I know. We do have markets in Fillydelphia," I said. "But now I'll have to go shopping before I can eat breakfast tomorrow."

"Oh," Jewel said.

We split at the Quill and Sofa shop and Jewel went home. I climbed up the stairs in the dark and flopped into bed without brushing my teeth.


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning I got up early, put my saddlebags on, and headed down to the market. It was busy and cheerful, and I quickly found what I needed. A pony named Rose recognized me from the party and gave me a vase of flowers from her flower stand. Applejack's sister was excited to see me and gave me some apples. By the time I finished shopping, I had twice as many things as I had intended to get, and I hard to carry half of them by magic.

Quickly I went home, put everything away, and ate breakfast. The rooms looked much cheerier covered in little tokens of friendship-flowers, a bowl of apples, a little bandana with suns embroidered on it, brightly colored quills from someone who discovered I was a writer.

With breakfast taken care of I decided to run other errands, and once again I got the saddlebags out.

First was to the library. It wasn't in a building but a hollowed-out tree, which seemed dangerous until I realized Twilight Sparkle probably had it enchanted against fires. I pushed open the door and went inside.

There was just one large room lined with shelves. Twilight Sparkle was there helping a red and green unicorn with something.

"Oh, hello, Lovely Dove," she said. "Just a moment and I can help you."

I nodded and turned to the books. It seemed fiction was grossly underrepresented-only one shelf, and that was what Twilight Sparkle and the other pony where looking at-but they had some pretty interesting books in other sections. Rearing up, I saw one titled "The Complete History of Seasons" on a top shelf. I concentrated and started to lift it off with magic.

Suddenly a door burst open in the back of the room. I was so startled I knocked the entire shelf down and the books came tumbling on top of me.

"Twilight! Letter from Princess Celestia! She needs you back in Canterlot!"

I shook a book off my head and saw the speaker, a small purple dragon.

"I'm so sorry," I said, about the books.

"Don't worry about it-Spike, read me the letter on the way!" Twilight Sparkle shouted. The dragon hopped onto her back and they galloped off.

"That was interesting," said the red unicorn. She came over to me and my pile of books. "Here, I'll put them back in alphabetical order if you can put them back on the shelf."

"Thanks," I said. "Er-"

"Liberty," she said. "And she said your name is Lovely Dove?"

"Yep," I said.

Liberty sorted through the books while I carefully lifted each one back onto the shelf. It didn't take long.

"What were you trying to do, anyway?" Liberty asked.

"Nothing," I said. "Thanks, though."

I moved over to the fiction shelf. It wasn't terribly well-stocked, just the most popular stuff, but there were a few books I hadn't read. "Do you think she'll let us check out books while she's away?"

"Oh, sure. You just write it in the ledger," Liberty said, gesturing.

"Okay, thanks," I said, lifting a couple of books into my saddlebags.

"Are you new in town?"

I nodded.

"What do you do?"

It took me a second to realize she was asking about my job. "I'm working at a stationary shop," I said. "I start tomorrow."

Liberty smiled. "Then I'm your new manager."

"Wait, really?"

She nodded. "Our old manager retired, so everyone got shifted up. I'm the new manager… and we were looking for new part-time help. The owner said someone was coming from out of town, but I didn't know when."

"Is there only one stationary shop in town?" I asked.

"Yeah," Liberty said.

"I actually meant to go there today," I said. "I need to get more paper for… you know…" I bit my tongue. No need to tell more strangers about the book.

"For what?" Liberty asked, and I stifled a sigh.

"For my book."

"Are you WRITING a book?" she asked, incredulous.

"Yeah."

"Whoa. That's so cool. I could never do that. I've read half the books in this library, but writing one is just something else. What's it about?"

"Just kind of… and adventure story," I said uncomfortably.

"Well, the shop's closed today, but I can let you in if you want," Liberty said.

I couldn't really get out of it-I needed the paper-so I checked out the books I wanted and we headed down the street. Liberty unlocked a shop with closed doors and we went inside the dark room.

"How long have you been working on your book?" she asked. "Stay there, I'll get the lights." I heard her tripping over things as she made her way across the room. A couple of lamps flickered on after a minute, and I could see a crowded back store room filled with all kinds of paper, quills, and ink.

"Um, about two months," I said. "I already finished the first draft. I just need to edit and get it ready to send out…"

"Oh, so you're nearly done!" Liberty said.

"Not really. The writing is the easy part. Editing is a million times harder."

"Really? I've sat down and tried to write things before. It takes so much patience. I've never finished anything."

"I was like that when I was younger," I said. "Once you figure out how to finish something, it gets… harder."

"Seems like if you could just get it on paper you're almost there."

I shook my head. "There's so much more to it. For the way I write, anyway. The first draft is easy. Then when you try to really fix things, you start to see everything that's wrong, so you change the whole book, and then you get frustrated because it doesn't even feel like the same story anymore. So you quit."

"Oh," Liberty said, gawking at me. Then she laughed and asked what kind of paper I wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

Later that day I was bored and couldn't make myself pick up a quill. Finally I gave in and went to take a walk. I spotted Jewel sitting on a bench in the park, and was about to go talk to her when somepony shouted my name.

"Oh, hey," I said, spotting Liberty. She was walking with a pale blue pegasus. They both headed my way.

"This is my friend, Rain Twist," Liberty said.

"Nice to meet you," I said, nodding.

"You too," Rain Twist said. "Call me Rain." She had an accent that reminded me faintly of Canterlot. Her eyes were bright gold, which was beautiful, but a little disconcerting until she smiled.

We walked together in the direction of Jewel's bench as Liberty explained who I was. I called out to Jewel, who waited a moment before looking away from the fountain in front of her.

"Hi," she said. She turned her attention back to the fountain.

Liberty and Rain apparently didn't know her, because they waited an awkward moment before I said, "This is Jewel. And this is Liberty and Rain."

"So-" Liberty said.

"I've wanted to paint this fountain for forever," Jewel said. She had a deep, earthy voice, but still managed to sound airy and distracted. "But it was always missing something. Could one of you stand there and let me paint you?"

"Oh," Rain said. "Sure." She flapped over to the fountain, landed, and struck a magnificent pose with her wings extended and one hoof raised. But Jewel just giggled. "What?" Rain said.

"Do you really want to hold that pose for hours?" Jewel said. "Just stand like you normally would."

Rain dropped her hoof and relaxed her wings. "Better?"

Jewel nodded. She picked her saddlebags up off the ground and began to set up her art supplies.

It was almost sunset already, so Jewel painted with a frenzy to catch it before the light changed. Rain, Liberty, and I talked the whole time. Rain, it turned out, was from Canterlot but had been living in Ponyville for years. She and Liberty had been friends since the end of grade school. She worked on the weather team and took care of all things rainy except for the really big storms.

And Liberty was from Ponyville-her whole family had been living in Ponyville since it was founded. She and Jewel had gone to school together. She'd been working in the stationary shop since she graduated, working her way up from part-time to the new manager. Now she lived in the apartment on the second story.

And somehow they worked my own embarrassing life story out of me. How I went completely friendless throughout grade school, then lost job after job and eventually was evicted from my home. Liberty and Rain were nothing but sympathetic, but still I couldn't believe I'd told them all of that.

"I think I am done," Jewel said at last, glancing between Rain and the painting. It was past twilight now-the sun was just barely visible. It was the exact moment between day and night.

We started to help Jewel pack up her things. Then suddenly the sky went gray.

The sun set, but the moon, which had been visible for a while before, disappeared along with the stars. The effect was strangely gray: no light, but no shadow, either.

"What's going on?" Liberty said. Rain shot into the air and looked around.

"Something's happening in Canterlot," she said. "I can't see it-RUN!"

We didn't stop to ask what was coming. Leaving Jewel's things behind, we galloped straight for town. The whole place was in hysteria. Ponies were running, screaming, calling for friends and family.

"Where are we going?" I shouted.

"I don't know!" Rain shouted back from the sky. "It's-STOP!"

I backpedaled and Jewel bumped into me from behind.

"What?" Liberty shouted.

"Fire!"

As soon as she said it, I could smell the smoke, and moments later I could see the flames. Ahead of the fire ran a crowd of ponies. We turned and fled toward the center of town.

When we reached the square, though, we ran into another crowd. There was a fire coming from that end of town, too-and from the two sides. The fires met, and Ponyville's entire population was trapped in the square.

Pegasi shot up into the sky, searching for rainclouds, but they soon fell back to the ground, coughing, because of the smoke. Liberty and I both shot shields of magic at Rain to stop her from hitting the ground too hard.

"What do we do?" Rain shouted.

"The fire's stopped moving!" I cried. It was still burning, but it wasn't coming into the square. Instead, it grew taller, surrounding us with four walls of flame… We were being corralled. Somepony was doing this by magic.

Suddenly something appeared out of the flames-a pair of eyes. Followed by a face, a claw, a scaly pair of wings, and a pointed tail. It was a dragon.


	4. Chapter 4

"Please, stay calm," he said. "As long as you pay attention and do as I say, I don't want to hurt you. But I do have something to show you. In case you were wondering, this is why your moon hasn't come…"

The dragon reached behind his wing and pulled out a massive orange slab. It was a piece of amber. Frozen inside was a battered blue alicorn. I'd never seen her myself, but I knew it had to be Princess Luna.

There were screams of horror and cries of despair.

"It's only temporary," the dragon said. "But before I release her, I need a little something from all of you." He reared his head impressively, and I found myself cowering. "Equestria is full of mines… and full of beautiful, delectable GEMS. I am merely asking that you hand all of them over to me. It shouldn't talk long, with all of you working, should it?"

Loud, angry protests issued from the crowd. Even I screamed back at him.

"Oh, really?" the dragon said. He leaned down toward the crowd and roared with such intensity my ears popped. The fire seemed to burn closer to us. The dragon straightened up and his expression became almost passive. "I would recommend you do as I say," he said. He turned like he was going to leave, then came back. "Oh, and by the way. Your days won't be coming back, either, until I possess ever gem in all of Equestria." He reached behind his other wing and pulled out another, slightly larger, piece of amber. Trapped inside was Princess Celestia.

The crowd howled again, and I joined them whole-heartedly. Our princess… he hurt our princess… How dare he even touch her! It was too much to bear.

"And in case you were still possessed of any tiny scrap of hope, I would like you to be aware that we have also destroyed your Elements of Harmony, and their bearers are in our captivity."

Six dragons appeared out of the flames, ringing the square. Each one held a ragged-looking pony-one of them was Twilight Sparkle. Some of the ponies struggled and some looked limp and hopeless.

One of them, a blue pegasus, somehow wrested her way out of her dragon's claws. She tried to fly out of his reach, but he slapped her with the back of his hand, sending her careening into the ground, where she lay, motionless and moaning, mere yards away from my hooves. She wore a dented gold necklace that looked like it once held a jewel.

"I must be off to Manehattan," the first dragon said. "In the meantime, I suggest you listen to my friends. And if you ever have the need to refer to me… I prefer to be addressed as The Master. Good day, ponies."

The dragon took up his two slabs of amber, flapped his massive wings, and rose into the sky. The others followed, one of them scooping up the battered blue pegasus. Behind them, the walls of fire disappeared, revealing a dozen more, slightly smaller, dragons. The fire must have been entirely magic, a hoax, because Ponyville was intact.

"Listen up, ponies!" the largest remaining dragon shouted. "Do as we say and we won't have to punish you! All leaders, doctors, teachers, and the like-move to that corner and wait for instruction! All younglings, in the other corner! Earth ponies and pegasi in the middle, and unicorns, report to me!"

I looked sadly at Jewel and Rain as Liberty and I walked over to the unicorn end of the square. We stood beneath the large red dragon, waiting for him to dole out our fates.

When he was satisfied that all of the unicorns in Ponyville were present, he grinned. "I need about twenty of you in one group, the rest in another…"

He gave us a long list of instructions followed by a longer list of rules and punishments. We were all given colored tags according to what our jobs were. Liberty and I had blue, and we were the locators. There were only fifteen of us. We were taught a spell to locate gems with magic, and eventually we headed down to the mines, a short walk away from Ponyville. The dragon gave us each a stick as we walked, to mark any gems we found in the dirt.

"You will hear my call when your shift is over. Now work!" the dragon shouted.

"This doesn't seem fair," I whispered as we headed into the mines.

"Really? No kidding," Liberty snapped.

"I mean the way they're dividing the labor. All we have to do is locate the gems? Who's going to dig them up, and who will haul them out? Why aren't we doing the digging or something?"

"Oh," Liberty said. "I don't know."

The mines branched out into dozens of tunnels, each of which branched even further. Without any pattern, small groups of two or three friends headed down random tunnels. Soon Liberty and I were alone.

"We are going to get lost," I muttered.

The tunnel rapidly became too dark to see. Liberty knew a spell to make her horn glow, and she taught it to me. It wasn't much, but it was enough to see by.

"How about I take the left and you take the right?" Liberty asked.

"Sure," I said. We headed off.

The beginning of the tunnel didn't have many gems. It was already pretty heavily mined. But as we moved further and further in, we began to find more and more.

"There's a fork," Liberty said, stopping suddenly. Ahead in our path the tunnel branched off into two. "How are we going to not get lost?"

"Let's always turn right," I suggested. "When we come out we'll know to always turn left."

Liberty nodded and we trotted down the right-hoof side fork.

After a while of that-I had no way of telling time-my head started to hurt. At first I ignored it, but when it started to throb I asked to stop.

"What's wrong?" Liberty asked.

"Nothing. I just need a rest."

We stopped and I sat down in the dirt. Liberty did too.

"What if we're too far in?" Liberty asked. "What if the signal already came for us to stop and we didn't hear it?"

"I think he's probably got a way to magically amplify his voice. Dragons are good with magic," I said.

"I guess," Liberty said.

I winced as my head gave a nasty throb.

"What's wrong?" Liberty asked.

"My head hurts," I said.

"It's because this isn't your magic," Liberty said dejectedly. "You know, how it's only meant to be used for stuff related to your talent? Yours is writing, I'd guess, especially with that cutie mark." She pointed to the quill on my flank. "Obviously locating gems isn't related to writing, so it's a lot harder for you. I bet you could write with magic for hours-days, even-and it wouldn't make your horn hurt."

"Oh," I said, sighing. "I guess that's why they only want us locating gems… We'd all faint with pain if we had to dig them out with magic, too."

Liberty nodded.

"So what's your talent?" I asked, because she didn't seem to be as affected as I was. "Music?" Her cutie mark was a bass clef.

She shook her head. "It's not really a talent, just an inclination. I can see the good in everypony and everything, you know? Especially music. I love to listen to every kind of music. We should… probably get moving again."


	5. Chapter 5

I could hardly walk by the time a voice came echoing down the tunnel, shouting, "Blue group, shift is over!" There was nopony deeper in our tunnel than us, but we could hear the voice rolling further on, like a bubble of sound.

"Thank goodness," Liberty moaned.

We made it back to the surface much more quickly than we went in. The red dragon was lounging outside. We'd been underground for hours but the sky was still gray. They meant it when they said the day wouldn't come until they had all the gems.

"Go back to the square," the dragon said lazily. "I'll call you when it's time for you to go back in."

Miserably we headed back to town, passing a huge group of dejected Earth ponies and pegasi going toward the mines. We reached Ponyville, and everything looked normal-except that the streets were totally empty. Then we reached the square, which was completely changed. Those Earth ponies and pegasi hadn't been resting while they waited for us to locate gems.

The whole square was fenced except for a small gap, guarded by a dragon, that everyone passed in and out of. Three tents had been set up, two in one corner and one taking up almost half of the square. The smallest tent had canvas walls, but I saw nurses going in and out. The one next to it was a makeshift kitchen. The largest was more of a covered pavilion, where the dirt square had been lined with rubber mats and thin blankets-a communal sleeping area. The other end of the square was occupied by large, mysteriously empty space, and a conveyor belt ran across the long side. A dozen colts and fillies were setting up baskets and buckets around the conveyor, but I couldn't tell why.

"Let's eat," Liberty said.

We headed over to the kitchen with the rest of the blue group. Food was strictly rationed and made up mostly of apples-I heard from the kitchen staff that all of it came from Sweet Apple Acres, and that the red group was in charge of all farm operations, heavily guarded by two of the dragons.

As we walked past the smallest tent, I saw the small sign next to the door.

"Liberty, look," I said. "They set up a clinic." My horn was still throbbing, and Liberty said hers had started to bother her, too, so we went inside.

A single doctor and a small group of nurses were hastily treating all kinds of minor injuries-scrapes, abrasions, pulled muscles. Nobody was seriously hurt, just overworked.

The young nurse who came to see Liberty and I was in a hurry. "What's wrong with you?" she asked. "Oh, the horn…" She immediately ran off and returned with two small bottles of liquid.

"There's not much I can do," she said. "That'll stop the pain for now, but I can't stop it from coming back. As long as they keep forcing you to do things you aren't meant for…" She trotted away, shaking her head sadly, to see another unicorn with the same problem.

"Thank you anyway," I said.

Liberty and I went to the sleeping tent. A small group of unicorns was already collapsed on the blankets.

"You should go to the clinic," Liberty told them. "They'll help with the horns."

I lay down next to her and went to sleep.

I was woken up by a huge tinkling crash, like a gigantic mirror had been broken over a mountain. Liberty leapt to her feet almost before she opened her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked sleepily, sitting up.

It was a pile of gems. A really, really huge pile of gems.

What looked like all of the pegasi in Ponyville were harnessed to it and had carried it to the empty space in the square. Now the colts and fillies were working the conveyor: some running on a wheel to power it, some putting the gems onto the belt, some sorting the gems by size and color.

Then a voice bellowed, "Blue group! Back to the mines!"


End file.
